Experimental and numerical investigation of the thermomechanical load on a turbine housing in a radial turbocharger

The fatigue life of turbine housing is an important index to measure the reliability of a radial turbocharger. The increase in turbine inlet temperatures in the last few years has resulted in a decrease in the fatigue life of turbine housing. A simulation method and experimental verification are required to predict the life of a turbine housing in the early design and development process precisely. The temperature field distribution of the turbine housing is calculated using the steady-state bidirectional coupled conjugate heat transfer method. Next, the temperature field results are considered as the boundary for calculating the turbine housing temperature and thermomechanical strain, and then, the thermomechanical strain of the turbine housing is determined. Infrared and digital image correlations are used to measure the turbine housing surface temperature and total thermomechanical strain. Compared to the numerical solution, the maximum temperature RMS (Root Mean Square) error of the monitoring point in the monitoring area is only 3.5%; the maximum strain RMS error reached 11%. Experimental results of temperature field test and strain measurement test show that the testing temperature and total strain results are approximately equal to the solution of the numerical simulation. Based on the comparison between the numerical calculation and experimental results, the numerical simulation and test results were found to be in good agreement. The experimental and simulation results of this method can be used as the temperature and strain (stress) boundaries for subsequent thermomechanical fatigue (TMF) simulation analysis of the turbine housing.